REINED IN: Razzi grazes back at home after his escape, but was gone yesterday, when inspectors grilled owner Giovanni Schirripa. Photo: Chad Rachman/New York Post

Giovanni Schirripa

Giovanni Schirripa (
)

The circus is over.

The city Health Department swooped down yesterday on the wacky wild kingdom run by a Staten Island animal nut — grilling him about how a zebra and a pony escaped from his shabby menagerie Wednesday and galloped down Victory Boulevard.

Giovanni Schirripa got a notice of violation after investigators found three roosters and three peacocks on his property, a department source said. But by the time the probers arrived, there was no sign of the zebra, which he had apparently spirited out of town after it was recaptured.

Schirippa told The Post he had brought both the recaptured zebra, named Razzi, and the pony, named Casper, to Phillipsburg, NJ.

Neighbors recalled that, as he evacuated the animals from his “zoo” in the Travis neighborhood, Schirippa declared he would be in “deep s–t” if he didn’t get them out of there.

“When [the Health Department] first got here, they questioned me about the whereabouts of the zebra,” Schirripa said. “And I told them, I don’t have to tell you anything about the zebra. It’s just not here.”

The animals were part of a petting zoo he ran in October. He claimed he had a permit for it.

The Health Department said there was never any record of him having a petting-zoo permit.

The zebra and pony escaped Wednesday as Schirripa was cleaning out their stalls. The duo was captured on video galloping free down a Staten Island street.

A wildlife biologist looked at photographs of the young zebra, and said the colt looked scruffy and disheveled after its adventure in Staten Island yesterday, though its condition was okay. There was a cut on the animal’s right shoulder, possibly from jumping the fence during its escape.

He added that he didn’t think the zebra was a good fit for the makeshift zoo.

“Petting zoos are for farm animals and not exotics,” said biologist Jeff Corwin, host of ABC show Ocean Mysteries. “Zebras are wild animals. Adult zebras can be very aggressive– they can even kill each other. It’s not going to stay a baby colt forever.”

One neighbor said the zebra owner had no horse sense.

“He’s an idiot, just a natural moron,” said Vinnie, 33, who declined to give his last name. “He’s a menace to society and to himself.”